Islamabad, Jul 26 (KNS): Massive delays and allegations of rigging dominated the early hours of Thursday in Pakistan, where official election results were still not announced even 12 hours after polling ended. Preliminary results, however, indicated that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had obtained a clear edge over other parties as results trickled in, giving pockets of supporters reason to celebrate in parts of the country, The Dawn, reported.
At a 4AM press conference, the Election Commission of Pakistan said that “technical difficulties” were behind the unprecedented delay.
CEC Muhammad Raza Khan congratulated the people of Pakistan for participating in a “democratic polling process”, and expressed gratitude for the polling staff across the country as well as the security personnel deployed on Wednesday.
“I am aware that the delay in announcement of results has caused some annoyance. But it [Results Transmission System (RTS)] was a new system and we were implementing it for the first time. Therefore, there was some delay,” said the CEC.
Regarding political parties’ grievances about polling agents not being given Form 45, he said: “It is not possible that a polling agent was not given the form. If there are any genuine complaints, we will take strict action.”
To a question of how he would respond to allegations of rigging in the election, the CEC confidently replied: “We will prove ourselves that we did our job right.”
He announced what he called the “first non-official, preliminary result” of the elections: PTI’s Chaudhry Adnan won PP-11 (Rawalpindi VI) with 43,089 votes.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
PTI Chief Imran Khan awaits final election results at Bani Gala (left); PML-N Chief Shahbaz Sharif holds a press conference in Lahore to voice concerns over vote counting process.
Based on reporting of 47 per cent of polling stations, PTI is leading on 113 National Assembly seats, while the PML-N trails behind with 64 and the PPP-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) is at third spot with 43 seats.
In Punjab, with preliminary results from 50pc polling stations available with ECP, PML-N is currently holding its lead on 129 provincial seats but PTI is closing in with a lead on 122 seats.
Meanwhile, PTI is clearly steering ahead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a lead on 64 seats against Muttahida Majlis–e–Amal (MMA), which is currently leading on 12 seats, as per reporting from 35pc polling stations in the province.
The preliminary results from 37pc polling stations in Sindh show PPP-P leading on 75 seats, followed by PTI on 22 seats.
In Balochistan, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) is leading on 12 provincial seats, followed by Balochistan National Party (BNP) on 9 seats, based on unofficial results from 35pc polling stations.
According to Geo News, Awami National Party leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour conceded defeat to PTI’s Shaukat Ali, his competitor on Peshawar’s NA-31 seat, saying: “The results indicate that Imran Khan is a favourite leader of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I am a democratic person and I admit the defeat.”
Counting is still going on at the polling stations of different constituencies. (KNS)